What Slows Us Down
My MacBook was running rather slow today and yesterday. It seemed like things were taking twice as long (at least) to do, and so this morning, rather frustrated, I opened up one of those utility programs that I rarely use and began to look "under the hood." (Yeah, I know, it doesn't have a hood, but still...) I discovered that one of the applications running in the background was taking up more memory than my Mac had to give it. Consequently, everything else had to "wait in line" to be able to run. One small little application was making everything else bog down. So I "killed" the running of that application...and everything else sped up.
And that made me wonder...on those days when I am sluggish and just can't seem to get going, what are the things that slow me down? For me, it's most often worry. I am a world-class worrier. I worry about things that will probably never happen. I worry about things that have happened and what I could have done differently. I worry about not having anything to worry about. (Okay, so not really, but you get the idea!) It's like an application running in the background that slows everything else down.
It may not be worry for you. It may be something else, like addiction or lust or control or judgmentalism. Or it can be an unhealthy focus on money or status or power. What is it we want more than anything else? For most—I would daresay all—of us, there is something that trips us up, that holds us back, that slows us down. And only through prayer, Scripture reading and worship can we begin to eliminate the power such an "application" is sucking from our lives. Only when we want God more than we want anything else will we begin to see our lives rightly ordered.
There is an old story told of a man who made a long trek to see a spiritual guru, and when he arrived he asked, "Tell me, what is the secret of drawing near to God?" The guru didn't say anything, simply gestured for the man to follow him. They walked down to a nearby river, where the guru suddenly turned on the man, grabbed him by the neck and forced his head under water. The man struggled, but the guru was surprisingly strong, holding him under the water. Just when the man's lungs were about the burst, the guru pulled him out of the water. While the man gasped for breath, the guru said to him, "When you want God as much as you just wanted air, then you will have found the secret of drawing near to him."
Do we want God today more than we want those other things?
And that made me wonder...on those days when I am sluggish and just can't seem to get going, what are the things that slow me down? For me, it's most often worry. I am a world-class worrier. I worry about things that will probably never happen. I worry about things that have happened and what I could have done differently. I worry about not having anything to worry about. (Okay, so not really, but you get the idea!) It's like an application running in the background that slows everything else down.
It may not be worry for you. It may be something else, like addiction or lust or control or judgmentalism. Or it can be an unhealthy focus on money or status or power. What is it we want more than anything else? For most—I would daresay all—of us, there is something that trips us up, that holds us back, that slows us down. And only through prayer, Scripture reading and worship can we begin to eliminate the power such an "application" is sucking from our lives. Only when we want God more than we want anything else will we begin to see our lives rightly ordered.
There is an old story told of a man who made a long trek to see a spiritual guru, and when he arrived he asked, "Tell me, what is the secret of drawing near to God?" The guru didn't say anything, simply gestured for the man to follow him. They walked down to a nearby river, where the guru suddenly turned on the man, grabbed him by the neck and forced his head under water. The man struggled, but the guru was surprisingly strong, holding him under the water. Just when the man's lungs were about the burst, the guru pulled him out of the water. While the man gasped for breath, the guru said to him, "When you want God as much as you just wanted air, then you will have found the secret of drawing near to him."
Do we want God today more than we want those other things?
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